National Gallery of Art App
Free Washington DC Apps
1. National Mall & Memorial Parks
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â The map features makes mall navigation easy! View your location in real-time, follow walking directions, and find sites of interest or metro stations near you. You can zoom up to three levels on the map. Tapping one of the red pins will bring up the name of the location. Clicking the name will provide up-to-date information, hours, and history of the site. View a photo album of each location, with photos throughout the sites history. Some memorials, such as the Lincoln memorial, feature video interviews with park rangers. The app also features tour plans, a postcard feature, and an events calendar.
2. National Gallery of Art Your Art App
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: Explore more than 130 extraordinary works by artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and others.  Listen to audio commentary or read text about highlights of the Collection or the Kid’s Tour. Find works of art by artist name, nationality, theme of the work, or location on the map. Zoom in to high-resolution images. Prepare for your visit with maps, hours, and other important visitor information. Stay current with event and exhibition updates.
3. Arlington National Cemetery
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: Finding the grave of a loved one or notable member of history at Arlington National Cemetery just got easier with the ANC Explorer App. Search by name, location, birth date, or death date. The app also provides a gps map that highlights memorials, ceremonies, trees, and more, depending on your selection. Tapping a notable grave will bring up information about the person who is buried there as well as an image of the grave. An event calendar is also available with this app.
4. National Archives “To The Brink” Exhibit
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: The “To The Brink” app brings the National Archives and JFK Library and Museum exhibit to iPads and contains many of the same photographs, documents, and recordings found in the exhibit – allowing people unable to visit the exhibit a chance to experience one of the most extraordinary moments in American history. Zoom in on President Kennedy’s notes, read the actual classified memos, and listen to President Kennedy’s words as he alerts the nation to the crisis in Cuba.
5. National Archives Docs Teach
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: “Engage in activities that will help you make sense of stories, events, and ideas of the past using documents from the holdings of the US National Archives. Choose an historical topic and challenge yourself with an activity. Or, find activities in a classroom set up just for you, using the code provided to you from the DocsTeach.org web site. DocsTeach.org is an online tool for teaching with documents from the National Archives. ”
6. National Archives Presidential Documents
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: “The Federal Register, in conjunction with GPO, launched a free mobile Web app on the President’s daily public activities. The Presidential Documents app includes the President’s Executive orders, speeches, statements, communications to Congress and Federal Agencies, approved acts, nominations submitted to the Senate, White House announcements, and White House press releases. The app‘s user-friendly search engine can search by date, category, subject, or location.”
7. Peacock Room
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: “Explore artist James McNeill Whistler’s famed Peacock Room in the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery and learn about its dynamic, cosmopolitan history in this fully interactive, visually stunning app. A scrolling panorama offers a virtual tour of the room as it is installed today. Tap on the paintings, ceramics, or decorative elements for more information and related multimedia content, such as audio guides by Freer|Sackler curators.”
8. DC Rider
Price to Download:Â Free
Key Features:Â DC Rider has a static metro map for viewing, but perhaps its most useful feature is the trip planner. Put in your metro location as well as the station where you are headed. The trip planner then provides information about which train to take and in which direction, as well as the approximate amount of time the trip will take. Selecting Next Train provides up to the minute information about the arrival of the next train. Selecting Fare provides cost information for this trip and the variations in fares depending on age and peak travel times.
9. International Spy Museum’s Vilify Me
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â “Using Villain Designer, take a photo of yourself and choose villainous clothing, physical attributes, and taunts to transform into a Bond villain. Then take the Lair Challenge: with $1 million, choose your lair location, security elements, and decor while trying to stay on budget. Your ultimate mission: prevent Bond from infiltrating your lair. How villainous are you? You’ll find out in the end when Bond conducts an assessment of your lair design.”
10. National Cherry Blossom Festival
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â This app is your guide to all of the activities surrounding the cherry blossom festival. View daily events, performances, exhibitions, and tours. Learn about the history of the festival and information for navigating Washington DC. Receive special offers and savings from local businesses. Stay up to date on the latest news and shop for official festival merchandise.
11. U.S. Capitol Visitor Guide
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â “The U.S. Capitol Visitor Center Guide includes all the information you need to prepare yourself for a visit to the U.S. Capitol. It includes information about booking tours of the Capitol, visitor amenities, location, hours of operation, watching Congress in session, Exhibition Hall, the Capitol Grounds, the Statue of Freedom, Capitol statues, and security.”
12. Newseum Today’s Front Pages
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â News buff? With the Newseum app you can browse hundreds of newspaper front pages every day from your smart phone and iPad. The app can be cusomized with “favorites” so that you can access your most read newspaper websites easily. You can also locate a newspaper using the map view.
13. Library of Congress Virtual Tour
Price to Download: Free
Key Features:Â The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library and the largest body of knowledge under a single roof. Whether you’re onsite, at home, in a classroom or elsewhere, this app will give you a virtual tour that mirrors the Library of Congress Experience, an award-winning group of exhibitions and features that has drawn record numbers of visitors.
14. Library of Congress U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: “The U.S. Constitution: Analysis and Interpretation app is a mobile version of the “Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation”, a comprehensive analytical legal treatise prepared by attorneys of the Congressional Research Service at the direction of the United States Senate and issued as Senate Document No. 112-9. The app is presented by the Library of Congress using data provided by the Government Printing Office.”
15. Library of Congress : The Congressional Record
Price to Download: Free
Key Features: Â Read the daily edition of the Congressional Record on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch. The Congressional Record App is presented by the Library of Congress using data provided by the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Office of the Secretary of the Senate, and the Government Printing Office.
Price to Download:Â Free
Key Features:Â Â The Civil War Alexandria app makes it easy to experience the rich civil war history of Alexandria as you explore the town. Like the other apps mentioned, this app features a gps map that places pins on key locations. Selecting a location provides the option to open the location on the map feature of your smartphone for directions. The Stop List feature displays a list of sites of interest. Selecting a site gives more information both in a text and audio format, along with a featured photo.
Paid Washington DC Apps
17. Smithsonian Portrait Gallery American Presidents
Price to Download: $3.99 (limited time only price)
Key Features: This app takes you on an interactive journey through the National Portrait Gallery’s iconic American Presidential collection.”See every brush stroke and detail with optimized images for retina iPad. Learn about each President’s accomplishments, family life, pets and personalities, from George Washington to Barack Obama. Discover a unique collection of portraits and objects guiding you through landmarks in American history. Visit the games room and test your skills with the trivia test, presidential pairs and famous quotes.” See the app in action:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=y09q2MWRh2M
18. Smithsonian Visitor’s Guide App
Price to Download: $0.99Â
Key Features:Â The Smithsonian Visitors Guide & Tours is the Smithsonian equivalent of the National Mall app. The layout is very similar, and equally as useful. The map will display your location in real-time as well as the location of surrounding Smithsonian museums. Tapping the pin of a museum will bring up hours of operation, history, and famous artifacts held at that museum. A minute-by-minute events calendar is available as well as tours categorized by interest. Selecting a tour will draw a route on the map for you to follow. Â The postcard feature allows you to take fun pictures with artifacts of the museums (such as the Hope diamond) superimposed.
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